Skyfall (2012)

Skyfall Synopsis

Daniel Craig is back as James Bond 007 in Skyfall, the 23rd adventure in the longest-running film franchise of all time. In Skyfall, Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

Spectre continues to play in the shadows, and the cast and crew are still keeping their biggest secrets under lock and key. However, we did pick up and few things here and there, in an attempt to shed some light on the film.

One of the most lasting images frrom Sam Mendes' Skyfall was of s tiny, porcelain, Union Jack-covered bulldog. The relic - which originates from World War II - was one of the few things that survived the explosion in M's office, and was used rather perfectly symbolically throughout the film. It was a wonderful touch to include in the 23rd James Bond adventure, and it looks like it will be back for number 24.

Casting has begun for an assassin, with a focus on “someone extremely physically fit and over 6' 2".” The person is said to have “several altercations with Daniel Craig's 007 throughout the film,” and also will be featured in a driving sequence.

The James Bond franchise isn't really one known for continuity, with most of the films in the series largely operating as individual stories, but that's something that has changed greatly in the Daniel Craig era. Director Sam Mendes has admitted that a great deal of the next 007 adventure, now simply known as Bond 24, will tie back to what we saw happen to the super spy in Skyfall.

The film must contain a character that is identifiably gay, bisexual and/or transgender. The character must not be solely defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity. And the character must be tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect.

Fans of Skyfall and all other things good for James Bond, rejoice! Director Sam Mendes has finally agreed to return to direct another installment of the Bond franchise, signing on today officially to direct what's now just being called Bond 24. Here's what producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli had to say about bringing Mendes back into the fold

In retrospect, last year was an absolutely amazing year for genre films. Both The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises exploded at the box office; The Hunger Games birthed a new beloved big screen sci-fi franchise, Skyfall ended up being one of the best James Bond movies in the history of the series...

So here's a twist. Sam Mendes had seemed officially, totally out of the running to direct the next James Bond movie, committing himself to theater projects like Charlie and the Chocoalte Factory and King Lear. But Skyfall made $1 billion-- yes, $1 billion-- and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson weren't going to take his rejection that easily

Don’t they realize three years from now, Adele will probably be a home-bodied shut-in unable to get past all the Grammy awards to exit her house, much less make it to the studio to record a theme song? Keep your eyes peeled for more news on directors and casting, which isn’t necessarily for your eyes only, but it can be shared.

Daniel Craig’s James Bond needs continuity. The character – nay, the entire franchise – was redeemed when Sam Mendes took over for Skyfall, prompting most Bond fans to lobby for the American Beauty director to return for the next film, at least. Sadly, it isn’t happening.

It’s been just over a week since this year’s Academy Awards, and English singer-songwriter Adele’s cementing her place as the most successful Bond girl ever. Not the veritable koi pond of women that Agent 007 sexes up, but the woman behind the theme song. Winning the Oscar for Best Original Song for the boozy Skyfall theme was a first for Adele, as well as Bond songs. That kind of achievement isn’t taken for granted very often, and don’t expect this to be the exception

In the chaos of attempting to liveblog the Oscars and keep the list of winners updated and everything else, I completely forgot about the brief tribute to James Bond, which was not the much-hoped-for reunion of all six men to play the super spy, but a fairly forgettable montage (followed, at least, by an awesome Shirley Bassey performance)

We've all followed the Oscars long enough to be realistic about what can and cannot happen. No matter how much you love Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables, you know he'll lose to Daniel Day-Lewis. No matter how much you might love Scarlett Johansson's Oscar-nominated song from Chasing Ice, everyone knows she'll be steamrolled by Adele's "Skyfall."

Skyfall isn't just one of the best Bond films to be released in the franchise's 50 year history - it's a straight up phenomenon. After the less-than-stellar Quantum of Solace, director Sam Mendes completely reinvigorated our collective love for everything 007 and the proof is in the box office.

Sources are telling the UK Daily Mail that Mendes is “75 percent” committed to directing Bond 24, which no longer will be the first half of a two-part story. Screenwriter John Logan reportedly continues to hammer away at the script for the next 007 thriller, which will return Daniel Craig to the lead role.

This week also offers a few indie greats and a couple of big action-oriented films. From RZA to 007, this week is full of great casts, quick wit, and plenty of bonus features. Read on to learn about some of this week’s best releases, and maybe even a few that slipped under your radar.

Few are going to complain about Deakins winning a cinematography award. In all honesty, Deakins could be honored for his achievement in this field every time he puts a film out. He has been nominated a staggering 10 times in the category by the Academy, but he has yet to take home an Oscar. This year his work on Skyfall is up for the award, and the ASC Award victory gets should get fans excited that he could break his multi-picture streak of walking home empty handed.

Sam Mendes’ installment in the long-running James Bond franchise did get 007 back on his feet after the dismal Quantum of Solace. And it ranks as the highest-grossing Bond film in the franchise’s 50-year history. But that isn’t enough to satisfy some nitpickers, which is why the latest Honest Trailer at Screen Junkies puts Bond in its sights.

Albert Finney's presence in Skyfall is mysterious for plenty of reasons, and actually took me by surprise when I saw it. Yes, his name was in the trailer and he was part of the casting announcements, but by the time he appears in the movie, you half expect the thing to have ended by then

This fall, the Bond franchise celebrated its 50th Anniversary and put out its newest hit, Skyfall, a film that earned over a billion dollars at the worldwide theatrical box office. Now, the flick is getting released on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download a little sooner than many of us may have expected. Skyfall will hit Blu-ray and DVD on February 12, but if you plan to purchase the flick digitally, you’ll be able to nab a copy on February 5.

Last year's Oscars ceremony was terribly dull. Not only was Billy Crystal a less-than-thrilling choice to host the event, the Academy failed to capitalize on the opportunity given to them by the fact that a song sung by Muppets was nominated for (and ended up winning) Best Original Song. Instead the only on-stage number was a completely forgettable performance by Cirque du Soleil celebrating the year in movies. Luckily, the ceremony won't be dropping the ball again this year.

We've all had a few hours now to process this year's Oscar nominations, to scream to the heavens demanding justice for Ben Affleck or running through the forest with fireworks to celebrate Beasts of the Southern Wild. So now that the dust has settled, what are the snubs that are still burning us up? Who are we going to miss the most on Oscar night?

Skyfall may be seen by some as just another silly blockbuster action movie, but the truth is that it really was one of the most beautiful films to be released in 2012, the Shanghai sequence alone deserving tons of recognition. But do you think that he deserves the top prize from the ASC?

"We are very happy to include a special sequence on our show saluting the Bond films on their 50th birthday," said the Oscar producers. "Starting with Dr. No back in 1962, the 007 movies have become the longest-running motion picture franchise in history and a beloved global phenomenon."

2012 was a giant year for the film industry. Not only were ticket sales up 5.6% in America compared to 2011, but three different blockbusters - The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall - managed to pass the $1 billion mark at the global box office. It was definitely a boom year for Hollywood, but who above all benefited the most?

For the most part this year’s award season race is a total toss-up – there were simply so many great movies released last year that it’s nearly impossible to determine the frontrunner for Hollywood’s top prizes. That said, however, it’s been the same group of titles that has been getting nominations from various organizations...

For the last two weeks we have been applauding the best work of the year, from our individual critical top 10s to lists of our favorite action scenes, on-screen couples, facial hair statements, lines of dialogue, breakthrough performances and much more. And now it’s time to celebrate those very special moments of 2012 when cinema and music fell into perfect harmony.

This is a monumental mark, yet hardly an unprecedented mark. Two other films released in 2012 managed to race past $1 billion before Skyfall: Joss Whedon’s The Avengers ($1.5B) and Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises ($1.1B). Still, it is a significant achievement for a Bond film.

Every year the movie industry comes up with a way to brag that the previous year has been the best yet, and usually it's a sham. After all, the simple fact of inflation means that most years, you're going to make more in sheer dollars than you did the year before. 2012 was no different, with studios bragging about their highest-ever profits, but something special really did happen this year

The following ten movies are the ones that have really stuck with me. They’re the ones that have gotten better with months or weeks of age and have separated themselves from the pack. Some of them will definitely be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and others will not even be considered. Some of them you’ll probably agree with, and some of them will probably make you laugh and doubt my credibility.

This year, the industry’s top action directors choreographed breathless scenes in dingy Indonesian tenements, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in cramped European hotel rooms and beneath the streets of Gotham City. Here are the 10 Best Action Scenes from 2012.

The reason I loved Skyfall so much was because of the way that it perfectly blended classic James Bond elements into the modern world. In the hands of a lesser craftsman the movie would have seemed like a cheap throwback, but the way that director Sam Mendes implemented parts like Ben Whishaw's Q, the casinos, the Walther PPK, the women, the villain...

While the system has its problems and flaws, YouTube is a pretty great thing. In addition to being an outlet that allows people to post all kinds of original content for all of the internet to see, it's also a great haven for movie trailers, a place where you can type in the name of your favorite movie and instantaneously get any of its preview. But of all the movies that were released in 2012, which feature's trailer received the most hits on YouTube?

Maybe because Skyfall is such an enormous hit, even by Bond standards, but Skyfall is earning some of that speculation you might expect for a Batman movie-- and one Reddit user has come upon a wild but maybe-sortof-plausible theory about the identity of Bond's father

It's been one of the quietest weekends of the year, the third lowest according to Box Office Mojo. With only one new movie out, and audiences showing little to no interest in it, James Bond had a chance to snag the number one spot for a second time since being released.

Friday estimates have Skyfall making $3.1 million on Friday, and according to Deadline it's on track for an $11 million weekend. That wouldn't be nearly enough to get #1 on your average weekend with a new release, but the only new wide release this weekend is Gerard Butler's Playing for Keeps

Skyfall is already a very, very big hit here in the United States, standing as the seventh-highest grossing movie of the year domestically, and likely to keep rising. But in the United Kingdom, home of Bond, it's a flat-out phenomenon. The 23rd James Bond film has now becoming the highest-grossing movie in British history

Luckily there's one solution out there for all of us, every year: the movies! Hollywood, a place that understands better than anyone how your family can make you nuts, obliges us every year by releasing a whole ton of movies around the holiday, at least one of which is bound to appeal to everybody. And while there are a few films you can take almost anyone to and guarantee a success

What’s interesting, however, is the news that Mendes and Logan have the idea for the next Bond movie. It lends credence to the rumor floating around that the next two Bond movies were going to be penned as back-to-back chapters of a longer story (though Craig shot that theory down). Even more enticing is the notion that Mendes might return to the director’s chair for a follow-up Bond thriller.

There are a lot of great elements in Skyfall. But what really sets Skyfall apart from the other entries into the Bond franchise is the glimpse we get into the psyche of the man who sits behind the mask of Bond. James Bond. And that man is Bruce Wayne

We’ve spent so much time covering Sam Mendes’ excellent Skyfall -- from Daniel Craig’s confident return as 007 to Javier Bardem’s scene-stealing turn as the villainous Silva -- that virtually no one has discussed that remote, bombed-out island Bardem’s character used as his base. Severine (Berenice Marlohe) explains that the power monger spread rumors of a chemical leak on the island, evacuating the residents and leaving him the lair.

Between Election Day and a nasty fever that suddenly took over my life, I didn't have it in me last Tuesday-- and I got the feeling you guys had other things on your mind as well. Plus, what we're talking about this week is the same thing we would have been talking about last week: Lincoln and Skyfall, and the handful of mysteries still waiting for us down the line

Now that Skyfall is a massive global hit and widely regarded as one of the best Bond movies of all time, it alls eels to make perfect sense that it was directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes, who brought in collaborators like cinematographer Roger Deakins and composer Thomas Newman to make the film so spectacular

"Connery is Bond and he's not going to come back as another character," Sam Mendes says. "It's like, he's been there. So, it was a very brief flirtation with that thought, but it was never going to happen, because I thought it would distract.”

From the moment Javier Bardem first appeared in a trailer for Skyfall, his villain already seemed unforgettable. With bleached blond hair and a sharp white suit, Silva was the kind of baddie that Bond has wrestled with for ages, powerful and a little bit crazy and prone to plots that are less logical than fantastic to watch

Skyfall opened this weekend and it was even bigger than huge; it's enormous, making $88 million in the United States this past weekend, easily becoming the biggest opening ever for a Bond film-- and that's even if you adjust for inflation. The movies that were once reliable but not blockbuster events have suddenly become the biggest thing in the business

Some attribute this weekend's record breaking opening of Skyfall to timing, as the movie breaks the doldrums of a very slow, dull October. Others suggest it's all the high end marketing and critical buzz around the latest Bond flick. Personally I'm giving credit to Adele for her near-chart-topping Bond song. Whatever explanations might be true, they had audiences packing out theaters this weekend to see what is being hailed as the best Bond movie ever.

I would ask if you saw Skyfall this weekend, but that almost seems like a crazy question-- everybody saw SKyfall this weekend, at least judging by the mammoth $88 million it made, the best opening ever for a Bond movie. Tons of people deserve credit for making Skyfall so great, from director Sam Mendes to the incomparable cinematographer Roger Deakins. But as always, it all starts with one man: James Bond himself.

Skyfall has been a gigantic hit overseas for two weeks already, so the question upon its North American debut this weekend wasn't whether or not it would be big, but just how incredibly gigantic it might be. The result is good news for Bond fans and especially the movie's distributor, Sony. Skyfall made an estimated $32 million on Friday